Next to watching your PC's processor quickly become
obsolete, the most puzzling experience in computing is trying to
figure out where your PC's storage space went. When you first
got the computer, you didn't think you'd ever fill its
jumbo drive--until you started updating your software and your
operating system.

Invariably, newer versions of the same old programs chew through
hard-disk space like locusts after a seven-year sleep--with the
Windows operating system in the lead. Now we have the Internet,
which makes it all too easy for us to binge on data.

Figure that you and your employees will be downloading a lot
more files in the future--not just e-mail, reports and other
textual information, but also charts, spreadsheets, slide shows and
highly graphical and space-hungry Web pages. You may be out in
front of the e-commerce trend with your own Web page and server. Or
you may host your own workgroup intranet or extranets that support
your Very Important Vendors and Customers. (If you aren't now,
you probably should.)

Plus, Internet browsers make liberal use of desktop hard drives
to store cookies, Microsoft's ActiveX software modules, Java
applets and cached Web pages in order to expedite Web navigation.
And they do it in such sloppy fashion that a couple of online
sessions can easily take a 25MB-to-30MB bite out of your drive.

You can nurse a single drive by regularly deleting unnecessary
files, e-mail, attractive-but-dated business presentations, and
backup versions of things. But those are hard, time-consuming
choices. In the long run, it's easier and cheaper to simply add
larger hard drives to your office PCs and to store as many files
and programs on them as Windows' short-sighted storage
conventions will allow.

Running The Numbers

Admittedly, adding a drive won't give you the speed boost
you get from a processor or system memory upgrade. But additional
storage space does help Windows' memory caching and gives
workgroup members the freedom to focus on their jobs, instead of PC
housekeeping.

Not so long ago we paid $1 per megabyte for storage--and not
long before that we paid $10 per megabyte. But now drive prices are
less than a nickel per megabyte, depending on the size and speed of
the drive you select (the larger, the cheaper). In fact, you can
get 40GB of storage in Maxtor's new DiamondMax Plus 40 for
about $350--that's less than a penny per megabyte. You only
have to look at the system configuration Windows 2000 requires to
know that you'll need every byte.

Unlike some PC upgrades, you can add a drive without throwing
away the old hard drive. Each of your office PCs is probably
equipped with a drive controller able to accept one, or maybe two,
additional IDE hard drives. If not, you may have to add another
drive controller like Promise Technology's Ultra66 card, which
should be available for under $60, in order to connect an
additional drive.

When the inevitable happens and you have to upgrade to entirely
new PCs, you can take these drives with you or add them to your
local area network. Drives undergo constant improvement; but if
they aren't filled up, they don't obsolete as quickly as
other PC components.

How To Pick 'Em

While hard drives sport a mass of technical specifications that
fascinate PC enthusiasts and PC magazines that feature them, most
aren't worth your or any business owner's time.

Longtime brand-name manufacturers like Quantum, Seagate, IBM and
Maxtor offer nothing but fast IDE drives. Minor differences in
speed are classified primarily by the revolutions per minute (RPM)
that the drives' platters spin. Most 10,000 RPM drives are
faster than 7,200 RPM drives, which, in turn, are faster than most
5,400 RPM drives. Also, larger-capacity drives are usually faster
than their smaller cousins, so you can shorten your evaluation
process by buying a larger drive with higher RPMs.

Within those classes, evaluating the small differences in drive
speed only becomes worth your time if you have a special purpose in
mind--a graphics workstation or LAN server, for example. The choice
for the past couple years has been Seagate's 10,000 RPM SCSI
Cheetah, with its large cache and use of the familiar SCSI bus. IDE
drives like those listed in the accompanying table are easily
installed in desktops, but the Ultra ATA/66 bus they use to
communicate with the computer is much slower and less robust than
the Ultra2 SCSI or Ultra160 SCSI buses that Cheetah uses.

Preparing For The Unforeseen

You probably don't plan to drop your drive before
installation or scrape your shoes on the carpet and zap its
controller card with a spark of static electricity, but these
things happen more often than you think--and they can damage the
new drive. Drives in the accompanying chart are covered by
warranties, but there's no way to reimburse you for time--and,
maybe, data--lost from an installation gone wrong.

Consider a drive rated to withstand at least 150 Gs (Gravity
Force units), which should cover the typical low-level drop.
Seagate's new Barracuda ATA does that one better; it is
completely encased in an aluminum SeaShield that gives it the
ability to withstand 300 Gs of shock and helps keep errant static
discharges off its circuit board.

PC problems in other areas can sometimes show up as drive
troubles later. Vendors report that more than half the drives
returned to them are working fine. To head this off, most
brand-name drives include software tools to help you ascertain the
condition of the drive before it's yanked and sent back.

Quantum's Fireball LCT line includes its Data Protection
System, a comprehensive diagnostic suite that's embedded in the
drive. Western Digital, Seagate, IBM and Maxtor have diagnostic
routines of their own. And all of these manufacturers' drives
include SMART technology, which uses predictive failure analysis to
warn you about impending problems. This information can be read by
a third-party program like Symantec's Norton SystemWorks 2000
or LAN administrative tools.

PC Remodel

Installing a drive isn't always easy, but it's within
the average entrepreneur's capabilities because it doesn't
require any special tools. Drive kits usually include everything
you need: mounting accessories, user manual and the software for
configuring the drive to your system. If you're only installing
one drive or are pinching pennies, you might want to take a swing
at it. If the task goes well, a drive can be installed in under an
hour.

But there's always a chance not everything will go smoothly.
So if you'd rather leave the job to someone else, check with
your local computer store or the company from which you bought the
equipment for a professional to take care of it. For example,
CompUSA charges a minimum of $70 to install one drive at its store
and a minimum of $120 to do so at your business. Given the cost,
you should prevent a repeat of the experience by installing the
highest-capacity drive you can afford.

Advanced Storage Options

As mentioned before, if it's a server you're equipping,
the best drive is the Seagate Cheetah. But if its drive bays are
maxed out, you might turn to network area storage (NAS)
devices.

Instead of shutting down your network to work within the system
itself, you can simply attach a NAS server to a network adaptor,
configure it and have it operate like any other computer on your
LAN. It can provide storage for all connected PCs with the added
advantage of bypassing--and thus, taking some of the file-saving
load off--the main server.

It's a new, fast-growing storage category, with
Quantum's Snap Server family the most popular option by far. A
Snap Server looks like a small, monitorless PC with one or two
drives, and it ranges in price from $499 for 10GB to $1,799 for
40GB of storage.

That's pricey as hard drives go, but stacks up pretty well
against the $3,000 to $10,000 you'd pay for the
alternative--adding another LAN server. Also, adding or upgrading a
general-purpose server usually involves shutting down the network
at night or on the weekend so work isn't interrupted and paying
a premium for installation.

Basically, a drive upgrade of any kind should take up as little
of your time as possible. Spend a little more money upfront, have
it done by experts, and that investment should pay for itself many
times over in enhanced productivity for you and your employees.